Golf in America: The Chad Pfeifer Story

• By Golf In America Producer
• Sep 8, 2011 9:55 AM ET

When we decided that the 10 year anniversary of September 11th would be the theme of our first show of 2011, we wanted to find three stories to put in our show from people who were impacted by the events of that day in different ways. One was set around a former FDNY Battalion Chief and another was about a former volunteer firefighter now offering his time and money to make sure, through golf, people remember the 343 firefighters who lost their lives that day.

Our third feature was about a man who had lost his left leg in and IED explosion fighting in Iraq.

When we were pitched Chad’s story, we were immediately interested. He wrote our programming department telling us his story, speaking very eloquently about how he was a war veteran who picked up the game as therapy after a life-threatening injury and it’s grown into a love he never imagined.

For us, it was a no-brainer. Only problem was, Chad didn’t write the letter.

After first speaking with Chad, he made it very clear. He didn’t write the e-mail and had no idea who did; still doesn’t. Nonetheless, Pfeifer was more than happy to do the feature.

Our producer, Chris Counts, spent two days in Phoenix getting to know Chad and his wife Summer. In the end, having them tell the story of their whirlwind three years turned out to be more powerful and emotional than we could’ve imagined.

We here at Golf in America will certainly all be keeping a close eye on the National Amputee Championships in October when Chad will be looking to take home the title after consecutive Top 5 finishes.